When the first Europeans from New England arrived in what was to become Marietta, they found a rich assortment of wildlife in the area. Wolves, mountain lions, black bears and elk were common in the late 1700s across the area that would become Ohio. Hunting of all the species was widespread with the government, in many cases, offering payment for the skins.

Wild game served as both food and a source of skins for the first people to arrive here from the east. Elk have a unique tie to the area. The river that flows through Marietta, the Muskingum, is believed to have been named after the Delaware tribe words for “elk’s eye” moos and wuschking, although there is some dispute of that. The elk once fed along the river’s banks.

All the big species were hunted to the point that they are no longer found in Ohio. The last of the native eastern elk was shot around 1840 in Ashtabula County. Even white-tail deer were gone from Ohio by 1904. The deer were reintroduced in 1936 in Scioto County, they now thrive all over the state, including in and around Marietta.

Now, 180 years after they left, the elk may be making their way back here as well. If you have never seen an elk in the wild, they are a sight to behold. First of all, they are a lot bigger than the deer that may eat your flowers or jump in front of your car. A full-grown female can weigh more than 600 pounds. The male can weigh more than 1,300. The only deer species larger is the moose.

Female elk can form herds that reach 400 animals. In the fall, male elk compete against one another to form their own harems. The unique bugling call they make can be heard for miles. In many protected areas of the west, including Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, elk and their courtship are a major tourist attraction creating elk traffic jams whenever the herds appear in the open. A few miles away from RMNP, in Estes Park, the elk will walk down the main street and take over the park in the center of town. It is not uncommon to see them laying in someone’s yard.

The elk may return to Ohio soon either by man’s effort or by letting nature take its course. The elk has already been reintroduced to several neighboring states. They were reintroduced in Pennsylvania in 1913, which is now home to around 1,400 animals. Michigan reintroduced them in 1918. West Virginia reintroduced them in 2016 into the 25,000-acre Tomblin Wildlife Management Area. Those elk came from Kentucky, where the population is now more than 15,000.

The Kentucky group was originally in an area called the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area. They are now found across the state, including several that were photographed in the Spring on a hillside in Greenup, Ky., less than 100 miles from Marietta and just miles from the Shawnee State Forest.

A 2015 report by the Ohio State University School of Environmental and Natural Resources concluded that several areas in southeastern Ohio would be good areas for reintroduction. The areas around Coshocton, Tippecanoe, Marietta, Athens North, Athens West, Ironton, and Shawnee were all identified as potential reintroduction zones, with the state and national forest providing the type of habitat needed. The area around Marietta was considered the largest area.

Before we will be able to hear the call of the elk in the Wayne National Forest, the Ohio Department of National Resources and state leaders will have to decide if it is a good idea. The state’s robust deer population, the danger of car-elk accidents, the damage they will do to crops, and the risk of disease are all things that are being considered and debated. There seems to be public support to make it happen, with more than 4,500 people signing a petition at Change.org to have the elk reintroduced to Ohio. A Facebook group called Ohio Elk Hunting has more than 8,000 members.

While all the debating is going on, there is a chance that a group of elk may simply swim across the river from Kentucky and start living in the forest of southern Ohio. We may hear them before we see them. The sound of the bugling carries for miles.